SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL GUIDED VISIT TO THE MODERNIST BUILDINGS

Transcription

1 SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL GUIDED VISIT TO THE MODERNIST BUILDINGS Espai Cultura de la Fundació Sabadell 1859

2 SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL GUIDED VISIT TO THE MODERNIST BUILDINGS OF ANTIGA CAIXA SABADELL >>> SUGGESTIONS FOR CLASSROOM WORK Below are two sections that will be useful for the preparation of the visit to the modernist buildings of Fundació Antiga Caixa Sabadell 1859 (main and former Industrial School of Arts and Crafts) and its corresponding complementary workshop (stained glass and mosaics). The first section is identified as Material for the teacher, is about modernism, the decorative arts found in the two buildings, and artists and craftsmen who participated in the construction of the main building. For students of Kindergarten and Primary School is good that the teacher use this information to pose it to students the questions in the second section, titled as Activities to do with the students. This task is divided into two sections: the first can be done before coming to visit and workshop because the children know better the artistic style that belong to these buildings; and the second are questions to answer once the activity has already been done, and to do a review of what has been said in the visit. Otherwise, if students are from secondary school or vocational training, you can give them the information called Material for teacher so they know more in depth the space that come to visit. The questions in the second section can be discussed in class once everyone has already read the document (questions previous to the visit) and once made the visit (questions after the visit). The addresses of information (in the form of web pages) at the end of the dossier can be used to investigate further and have a broader and richer topic. >>> MATERIAL FOR TEACHER What is modernisme? Modernism was a cultural movement, basically artistic and literary, produced in the West between the end of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century. The explanation below is based on the artistic part of this movement, as it is related to the topic of this issue. In Catalan, the word Modernism has a very broad meaning that goes beyond the purely artistic. But basically only designate currents of Western art (especially architectural and decorative) known in other countries as Art Nouveau, Modern Style, Jugendstil, Stile Liberty, Sezessionstil, Style 1900, Style Nouille, etc. It is basically a derivative-derived style and symbolism, characterized by the predominance of the curve on the line, the richness and detail of the decoration, the frequent use of vegetal motifs, the taste for asymmetry, refined aestheticism and dynamic forms. Its origins lie in England, where the influences of the Arts and Crafts movement and the Gothic revival had already given an style towards the Aesthetic Movement, which was a prelude to the content of the Art Nouveau. Until the second half of the decade of the eighties didn t appear the firsts modernist works (A. Gaudí and L. Domènech in Catalonia, L.H. Sullivan in the US, etc.), and was in the following decade that style was generalized in works like the Belgian architects V. Horta and H. van de Velde, the French H. Guimard, the Scottish C.R. Mackintosh (Glasgow school director), the German A. Endell and the Austrian O. Wagner, J. Hoffmann and J.M. Olbrich, as the French artisans R. Lalique and É. Gallé (Nancy unifying School) and the American C.L. Tiffany and Lighting illustrators and poster as the English A. Beardsley and the Czech A.M. Mucha. In France, in 1895 Samuel Bing opened the store s Art Nouveau, which helped to make fashionable style that was widespread throughout the Munich magazine Jugend, founded in 1896, and gave him the name. In the Germanic

3 world the movement went much attached to Sezession. The international triumph of the style was undoubtedly the Paris Universal Exhibition in 1900, and later this year, although it was still cultivated for a few years still hard, lost the regenerative character; contributed, however, to form new styles that follow. In 1884, when the word appears, perhaps for the first time in Catalonia, in L Avenç, Ramon Casas and Santiago Rusiñol, though unknown, presented the new room Parés works that were already controversial by critics (La corrida of Casas; Barcelona, Sala Collection). It was the time of the first architectural essays by Antoni Gaudí, the great architect who began the movement to the forefront of international art, with great early works such as the Palau Güell ( ); Lluís Domènech i Montaner, with the restaurant of the Universal Exhibition of 1888 (Castle of the Three Dragons), and placed almost at his level. The structurally and decoratively fantastic innovative architects of the two was soon followed by many others, such as Antoni M. Gallissà, Jeroni F. Granell, and B. Bassegoda i Amigó, Pere Falqués and especially Josep Puig i Cadafalch, author, among other works, of the local Els Quatre Gats, site of the discussions and events of modernists. At the same time, J. Domènech i Estapà and Enric Sagnier worked with an eclectic modernist influence with big spectacularity. Modernism in art was synonymous of modernity, and that time, in painting, was naturalism as defined by the referee of the review Raimon Casellas. Casas and Rusiñol constituted the modernist painting when imported from Paris echoes of Edgar Degas Impressionism the early years of the decade 1890 (Plein Air 1891, Casas, Modern Art Museum of Barcelona), in the middle of the misunderstanding of much of the public and critics. The term, however, also included little or decadent symbolism cultivated by the Anglophile Alexandre de Riquer (since 1893), by Rusiñol in their panels of Cau Ferrat in 1896 by Joan Brull, Josep M. Tamburini, for Sebastià Junyent (which also had Grey Impressionism) and the Catholic Joan Llimona, and somehow also included the exuberance of color of the distant Hermen Anglada. In sculpture the highest figure was Josep Llimona, followed, never with so identification with the new European trends like him, by Enric Clarasó, Miquel Blay, Agustí Querol and Eusebi Arnau, which often integrate their work on the new architecture. At a level virtually all popular Modernism was the symbolist art, especially the sinuous and exuberant decorative arts framed inside Art Nouveau or the european Modern Style: sculptors as Lambert Escaler and Dionís Renart, artists like Lluís Bonnín, painters like the first Pau Roig, furniture makers like Gaspar Homar and Joan Busquets, designers like Josep Pey, poster as Gaspar Camps (as like Casas and Riquer), goldsmiths as the family Masrieras, book-platers as Josep Triadó and Joaquim Renart (and Riquer above all), and versatile men like Adrià Gual i Lluís Masriera, mostly belonging to a younger generation, perpetuated a style in decoration that soon remained without concern for renewal that the first modernists. Against this spectacular and decorative deviation rose young people as Mir, Nonell, the first Picasso, Pidelaserra, Canals and others that, rejecting the name of the modernist continued applying the most conservative critics, rediscovered the renewed concern that had the greatest left and put the Catalan painting at the forefront of western art. While in painting the Modernist art fell into decline at the beginning of the twentieth century, sculpture, especially the applied one, and also in architecture still survived many years in the great work of the first Josep M. Jujol, Joan Rubió i Bellver, Lluís Muncunill, Salvador Valeri, Alexandre Soler i March and Cèsar Martinell. Also rooted in Valencia (Francisco Móra, Manuel Peris, Demetri Ribes) and Mallorca (Gaspar Bennazar, Francesc Roca) and expanded to other lands through Catalan architects like Josep Grases (in Madrid), Enric Nieto (in Melilla), Pau Monguió (in Teruel) and Eugeni Campllonch and Julià Garcia Nuñez (in Argentina), to the point that was appointed in many places of the Hispanic area as the Catalan style. DECORATIVE ARTS OF THE MODERNISTS BUILDINGS OF ANTIGA CAIXA SABADELL The windows The windows are stained glass windows of some skylights and other openings in a building, built according to a design or preliminary drawing (cardboard) and made generally with lead on a metal frame. To make a stained glass, the first operation consists in tracing in a paper the cardboard painted by the artist. After this, cuts the paper on templates, which will serve as a model for glass cutter. Once the glass is cut, it is leaded provisionally to be able to paint the lines of the drawing with compatible paint. Once the crystals are unarmed, we cooked again in the oven (between 500 C and 700 C) to fix the paintings. Leaded again, we weld strips of lead and make various shaped panels, which, once placed in a metallic frame, are embedded with iron bars in its final place.

4 The mosaics The mosaics used to decorate a surface made from pieces of stone, marble or other materials of different colors that are joined together using a special paste. The word comes from the Latin musivum opus, set out in Rome towards the end of the first century BC to indicate the decorations that adorned fountains and caves, dedicated sites to the muses, received the name of musae and their decoration, the musivum opus. In the mosaic work is necessary to distinguish two major categories: the mosaic pavement and the wall, this second born later than the pavement. The invention of the tile revolutionized the technique of mosaic; cutting and joining them with care the artist could get to obtain artistic effects similar to those of the mural. The materials used are marble, limestone and glass paste; is called opus tessellatum. The difference between opus vermiculatum and opus tessellatum was that the tiles are very small. The opus signinum consists in tiles used over a pink mortar. The opus sectile is a mosaic composed of marble slabs. ARTISTS AND CRAFTSMEN OF THE MODERNIST BUILDINGS OF ANTIGA CAIXA SABADELL The architect Jeroni Martorell (Barcelona, Barcelona, 1951). Architect entitled in Barcelona in As director of the Monument Conservation Service (1915) and as an architect and curator of monuments of the Public Instruction Ministry (1929) restored and often reassess many archaeological monuments (Cases dels Canonges and Cases dels Velers in Barcelona; monasteries of Poblet, Sant Cugat del Vallès and Sant Pere de Rodes, Martorell Roman bridge, churches of Terrassa and walls of Montblanc). As works of new plant, he designed la Caixa d Estalvis ( ) and the School of Industrial Arts and Crafts ( ) of Sabadell and a large number of schools in the Maresme and Vallès. As a theoretical introduced, especially from the magazine Catalunya, the theories of Viennese Sezession, he worked regularly also in La Veu de Catalunya, and Vell and Nou ( ). Published a Inventari gràfic de Catalunya (1909), Estructuras en ladrillo and Hierro atirantado en la arquitectura catalana (1910), El castells de la Geltrú (1919), Passeig arqueològic de la Falsa Braga a Tarragona (1933) and presented a speech in the Second Congress of Architects in Catalan Language, L urbanisme en relació als monuments arqueològics (1935). The glassmakers Antoni Rigalt i Blanc (Barcelona Barcelona 1914). He learned the office of glazier s workshop at the workshop of Francisco Vidal and opened a new workshop of painted glass. He taught drawing at the School for the Deaf and Dumb of Barcelona and assistant professor of market. He belonged to the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Barcelona. In the the Universal Exposition of 1888 won a gold medal. Artistic correspondent of La Ilustración Española y Americana, of Madrid. He personally participated in the Third Exhibition of Fine Arts and Artistic Industries in Barcelona (1896). He revived the technique of polychrome glass, which had been lost, with Tiffany s pastries and managed works of true quality. Associated with Jeroni F. Granell i Manresa and founded the society Rigalt, Granell and Co., the most important catalan home dedicated to the realization of stained-glass. Later on he settled on his own and continued performing numerous stained-glasses for houses of Barcelona. Jeroni Ferran Granell i Manresa (Barcelona Barcelona 1931). Architect titled on 1891, made a number of flats in Barcelona with modernist facade. Has been described as a pre-rationalist and compared with Hoffman of the Stoclet Palace in Brussels. His work stands the former home Rigalt (Mallorca street number 219) in 1900, the street Roger de Llúria No. 84 (1900), the Girona street number 122 (1903), the Padua Street No.75 (1900), etc. Primarily associated with the renowned glassmaker Antoni Rigalt Blanch, began the manufacture of common stained-glasses (which continued himself) in front of Catalan Modernism; made, for example, the ones from Palau de la Música Catalana.

5 He was the son of Jeroni Granell i Mundet ( , foreman, director of local roads and painter decorator) and father of Jeroni Granell i Bartomeu ( , continuing the manufacture of stained-glass, which later continued his children). Casa Maumejean (from 1860 to the present). It is a family business founded in 1860 by Jules Pierre Maumejean who has been devoted to the realization of artistic stained-glass for over 150 years. Jules Pierre Maumejean, the founder of this dynasty, had five children who were his followers: Joseph Jules Maumejean, Jean Siméon Henri Maumejeani, Léon Ernest Thomas Maumejean, Marie Thérèse Gabrielle Blanche Maumejean and Charles Emile Joseph Maumejean. All of them, like their father, were great artists specialized in painting on glass. And some of the founder grandsons also dedicated. Over several generations have done precious stained glass used in both civilian and religious buildings, mainly in France and Spain, although many of his works have been commissioned from other countries in Europe, America, Asia and Africa. Several Maumejean s family members settled in Spain, where they installed one of the glassmaker s workshops most important of the nineteenth century. In 1908, the Maumejean brothers opened offices in Barcelona, in Rambla de Catalunya number 21; and then in San Sebastián, at Pedro de Egaña street number 8. These workshops were grouped in the Maumejean Brothers Limited Company, based in Madrid. The sculptors of the front Josep Llimona (Barcelona, Barcelona, 1934). Sculptor, brother of Joan Llimona (painter). Formed since childhood with Frederic Trias, then in La Llotja, with Vallmitjana and Nobas. In 1880 he won, with El fill pròdig, the pension Fortuny to study in Rome, where he went with his brother. There he worked in the studio of Enric Serra and attended the academy Gigi. Back in Barcelona, made several works for the Universal Exposition of 1888, where he participated as an exhibitor and he obtained the gold medal by a Roman equestrian statue. Influenced by the conversion of his brother, he founded with him the Artistic Circle of Sant Lluc and started on with religious themes. In 1900 he presented in Barcelona and Olot an exhibition of drawings of nudes, thematic hereinafter often tried. At the International Exhibition of Fine Arts in Barcelona in 1907 its Desconsol won the honor prize. In 1909 he became a city councilor of the city of Barcelona hall and member of the Museum Board (later he was president), from this position, he helped Barcelona museums during his splendor. Apart from the exhibitions in Barcelona, he participated in exhibitions in Madrid (1901 and 1915), Brussels (1914) and Paris (1919) and he showed individual exhibitions in Buenos Aires and Rosario de Santa Fe (1925) in Argentina, where several of his works remained. Success official sculptor, decorated by the governments of France and Italy, won the first gold medal of the city of Barcelona that was granted. It was an eclectic artist considered the primary sculptor of Catalan Modernism, especially since the completion of his female head Modèstia (1891). The main feature of his style is so elegant containment made less intense the potential eroticism of his abundant nudes as well as the aggressiveness of their male figures; and prevents ultimately drop its rhetoric sculpture. He was the father of Maria Llimona i Benet, Rafael Llimona i Benet and the illustrator Lluís Llimona i Benet. Eusebi Arnau (Barcelona, Barcelona, 1934). Sculptor and medalist. He started in sculpture at the workshop created by architects Lluís Domènech i Montaner and Antoni Maria Gallissà (1888) at Castle of the Three Dragons, Barcelona. He made sculpture works for Casa Amatller (1900) of Puig i Cadafalch; for the majestic chimney Fonda Espanya (1903), of Domènech; glass marble of Casa Garriga Nogués (1905), since 2010 at the Museum of Catalan Art Nouveau, and particularly the relief frieze in the Casa de la Lactància (1910), of the architect Falguera. He performed other work for the Parc de la Ciutadella, the Palace of Justice and the dome of the cathedral. It was, together with Llimona, one of the most representative sculptors of Modernism.

6 The painter Ricard Marlet (Sabadell, Vallès Occidental, Matadepera, Vallès Occidental, 1976). Recorder specializes in boxwood. One of the most sensitive representatives of placidity noucentista, collaborate on L Almanac de les Arts ( ). Illustred joys, L aire daurat by Marià Manent (1928) and a Quixote for a bibliophiles society of New York (1933). In 1937 he designed the paper money of the city of Sabadell. He also worked mural painting, sculpture, ceramics and metalwork. >>> ACTIVITIES TO DO WITH STUDENTS REFLECTIONS AND QUESTIONS FOR CLASS (before the visit) - In Catalonia we know that current artistic and literary as modernism, with what other name is known around the world? - What elements characterize the modernist style? - Do you know a famous architect who built several buildings following the Modernism? Can you name some of the buildings built? - What other buildings built / designed the architect Jeroni Martorell? - Which decorative arts can we find in the building of the former Caixa Sabadell? - Do you know how to make a stained glass? Do you know the technique? And mosaics? - Which are the names of the different types of mosaic made with tiles? REFLECTIONS AND QUESTIONS FOR CLASS (after the visit) - Which symbols represent Caixa Sabadell? What do they mean? - What part of the building are stone sculptures that made Josep Llimona for the old building of Caixa Sabadell? - Which flowers are on the capitals of the yard operations (at the entrance to the office, where boxes and tables to the public)? - The courtyard of the building of the former Caixa Sabadell is called Pati Turull, do you know why? - What kind of mosaic is in the lobby of the Modernist Hall? The classic Roman or the brittle one? Which are the differences between them? - What do the dates 1859 and 1915 appearing on the door Modernist Saloon mean? - The external appearance of the two buildings by Jeroni Martorell (former Caixa Sabadell and the former Industrial School of Arts and Crafts) are very different, the first one have stone of the facade long worked with many elements, and the second one has a smooth facade. Given this, they are the same artistic style or are different? - Which parts remains from the original building of the former Industrial School? - The lamp on the stairs of the Old Industrial School is made of colored stained glass, what is represented in? FOR MORE INFORMATION

7 Mes informació: Espai Cultura de la Fundació Sabadell 1859 C. d'en Font 25, Sabadell Telèfon: /Espai Cultura